Practicing seed saving

I just placed my order for some zinnia seeds for next year that were a little pricey. So first, I hope they grow! And then, once they do, I am hoping to save some of the seed to use for the NEXT year, as encouraged by the breeder (Floret Farms on the west side of Washington state.)

So even though my zinnias this year were just standard run-of-the-mill mixes, I wanted to use this year to practice my zinnia seed-saving technique.

You let the flowers go to seed on the stem (you can’t get seeds from a flower you have cut in its prime and brought inside, for example.) So you look for dried blooms and snip them off.

This little guy was maybe not quite dry enough, but I snipped him anyway.

One of the things I love about zinnias is how many different shapes they come in.

Oooh - I didn’t realize how blurry this photo was until I went to post it. But you can see the dark seeds on the ends of each petal. It’s those dark seeds that we want to save.

That’s what we are looking for - just those heart-shaped seeds.

You start by just letting those blooms that were snipped in the garden when they were fully pollinated and fairly dried out just sit for a few days to full dry out. I think they kind of look pretty like this!

Because there are so many different shapes (some with distinct petals, others more snowball-shaped), you basically just “crunch” up all of the elements in the bloom. That starts with the petals, but for the more cone- or ball-shaped varieties you just pull all of the bloom apart. Then you start crunching all of what you have pulled out, with the purpose of separating out the seeds from the rest.

Now this is the fun part: You either use a fan or just blow to separate out the heavier seeds from the rest. This is an actual, formal technique. Commercial seed companies use a giant fan and just pour all of the zinnia bits and pieces past it. The lighter, dried, unused parts blow away, and the seeds fall through.

I was not very good at blowing and filming at the same time, but it actually works! I did it in the chicken run, so if the volume is on, you can hear the chickens giving me verbal support.

Ta da! This is some pretty good-looking zinnia seed! I’m going to put it in some paper envelopes and save it in the back of the refrigerator and see if it germinates next year. If it works, then I will put it to use for real next year!